


From R To Kylo

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A good bit of alcohol, Ao3 tag of the day do I have your attention yet?, Cave Sex Guaranteed, Cave Sex likely, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Inappropriate use of meteorology, Modern AU, Pen Pals, This isn’t what a geosciences degree should be used for, Trapped together trope, archaeologist AU, in a cave specifically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-11-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 07:48:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16237292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: Ben and Rey are archaeologists who absolutely cannot stand each other. They also happen to be pen pals, but they don't know who the other is, until one night they get trapped together at a creepy excavation site, and suddenly their hatred begins to unravel.





	1. Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



For the American south, autumn was an absolute lie. At least, it was until about mid-November when at long last the temperatures dropped below sixty degrees Fahrenheit and people were finally able to break out their winter coats. But for now it was mid-October, and Ben Solo was absolutely sweating as he hiked up the trail of a mountain with the crew of his most recent dig. 

He supposed the Appalachian mountains were slightly cooler than the rolling hills and plains just to the south thanks to the altitude, but still his hair stuck to his forehead as they made their way to a high up cave in the heavily eroded hillside. His breathing began to come out in pants as someone ahead of him warned that they were getting close, sending a shock of relief through him as he narrowly avoided tripping on a rock. 

Ahead of him, he could see the other two men that had been chosen for this mission up into the mountains. Unlike him, Finn and Poe seemed to be perfectly happy despite the immense humidity and the sweat he could see dripping from their faces from twenty feet away. Despite the heat, they were both laughing at some joke the latter of the two had told. Ben found himself unable to fathom just how in the hell the two of them could be so jubilant when everything was so miserable. 

“What did he say?” a feminine voice called behind him, and he fought back a scowl as he looked back at the fourth member of the team, a young archaeologist by the name of Rey something he’d never bothered to learn despite having worked with her for the past six months. All he knew about her was that she hated him, which wasn’t such a terrible thing since the feeling was certainly mutual. 

“We’re almost there,” Ben grumbled. “Now if you would stop asking every five minutes, maybe we’d make it there faster.”

Rey laughed at him as she caught up with his pace, and wiped a bead of sweat off of her forehead before flicking it off onto him. He openly grimaced at her, which was only worsened when she decided to open her mouth again. “Hear the accent, mate,” she told him, then she had the audacity to pat his shoulder. “Not from here. Loathe the heat. It’s nearly thirty degrees and mid-October. I am  _ dying. _ Get off my ass.”

He scoffed “We’re all dying, sweetheart. Some of us just choose not to bitch about it. And it’s closer to ninety degrees.”

“See, there’s this little system the rest of the world uses. Like normal people. It’s called Celsius. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?” The snark in her voice caused him to come to a grinding halt, and he stared at her as she looked back at him smugly.

Another glare was shot her way as she used his frozen state to move past him, and rushed up the path to catch up to Finn and Poe. Ben grunted his frustration, then quickly followed behind them as they climbed the remaining distance to the little cave. 

It had been first discovered about a month earlier by a group of hikers attempting to make the trek from north Georgia up into New York. At first they’d thought it was just a rock formation, but when one of them leaned against it, the rockfall gave way to—well—a cave, and a lot of human remains. Not just skeletons, but actual evidence that a civilization had once lived in these mountains. The hikers had reported the sighting, and a week later the first team of archaeologists and geologists sent by the U.S Geological Survey came up to analyze it, setting up a site for others to examine later on and getting a look at just what was inside. 

They’d found a whole plethora of things in the cave. Furniture, weapons, human bodies—well, skeletons, this wasn’t Pompeii after all— and by the end of the day they’d had a vague picture of who these people had been. Somehow. Despite historical fact pointing to no European settlers coming to this part of the country until the eighteenth century, the artifacts pointed to those exact people being there at a time that was likely much earlier than that. Samples were quickly taken away to be analyzed at labs, revealing that the site was actually two hundred years older than anyone should’ve been in that area. 

The findings, if they proved them correct, would change how people viewed American history. Somehow this made the cave both fascinating and undeniably creepy, according to those who had been inside. 

Ben’s mission with Finn, Poe, and Rey was to determine how these people lived, how many of them there were, and what they might’ve been doing so far from the sea in Jamestown era America. They’d been gathered together because according to their higher ups, they were a perfect mix of people to analyze this cave. Ben and Rey were highly skilled archaeologists—though he’d never admit to her that he thought she was actually good at her job—and Finn and Poe were a geologist and a historian respectively, the two of them offering unique perspectives for the team. 

The other two men were also much better coworkers than he and Rey were, both professors at a university somewhere in Colorado who had apparently been best friends for years. That much was obvious in the way the two men openly chortled with one another despite the immense, southern heat while he and Rey were going at it like cats and dogs. He watched her glare at him as they finally walked out of the sun, and into the cool shelter of the cave, feeling relief wash over him instantly as the temperature dropped a good ten degrees. Something was going to have to change between them on this trip, or else neither one of them was going to survive. 

“God, Kenobi, what’s your problem?” Ben hissed as he walked past her, into the great expanse that was the unexpectedly massive cave. He’d heard stories of what the place was like on the inside, and seen pictures, but nothing could have prepared him for the remains of what must’ve been a small village he saw before him. “Oh wow…”

The four of them stood still at the front of the cave for a few minutes, taking it all in as they set their heaviest packs down at their feet. The space was almost cavernous for another hundred or so feet ahead of them, then it began to narrow out into the pathways and twisting trails the geology team had mentioned in their reports from two weeks prior. Around them Ben could see copious amounts of weaponry and furniture—as promised—marked off with brightly colored flags of varying shades to mark where everything had been found. 

Off to the side, a small, foldable table had been set up with chairs, likely for them to eat their meals at. Ben looked at the table appreciatively before he took in the small fire pit in the center of the floor which looked to have been hand dug. He quirked his eyebrows at the few blackened pieces of firewood still lingering in the center. So  _ that  _ was why Poe had mentioned bringing firewood on the drive up. 

As Ben began to walk into the cave, he couldn’t help but to note that everything was remarkably well preserved. Especially since it looked like no one had taken care to make sure such a thing happened. It looked like everyone had just dropped dead where they were, and left everything out haphazardly as a result. In all honesty, it was a miracle that they’d found the site like this, or even that they’d found it at all. 

Ben could’ve kissed the stupid hikers that had found this place. It was an absolute gold mine. 

“Alright, everyone,” Poe announced, clapping his hands together as he walked forward, and set his stuff down by the nearby table which had been left behind by the last team who’d been up there. “Let’s eat lunch and start looking at all of this shit. We’ve got a lot to do, and yeah, I brought hot dogs and booze…” he patted one of the bags he’d set down. “But I wanna make another food run before tonight. A big storm’s supposed to roll in, and I hate driving in the rain. Let’s hustle.”

Ben wanted to protest, but Poe’s plan was actually pretty solid. His stomach was indeed rumbling it’s daily cry of “feed me!” and his throat was dry from the hike they’d just taken up to the cave from the distant parking lot a mile down. Apparently that was the absolute closest they could drive to the site, and while he was far from out of shape, a five mile hike with a large amount of weight on his back in the immense heat would ruin absolutely anyone. 

With a nod, he pulled back one of the little stools they’d been given, and settled down into it, sliding his backpack off of his shoulders to retrieve the fast food lunch he’d bought while he and Rey were still at the airport—since god didn’t hate them enough, they were stuck on the same flight. She’d yelled at him for purchasing the sandwich, angry that he’d decided to stop them for even five minutes in their hurry to meet Finn and Poe at the front of the Nashville airport. From there, it had been another hour and a half long drive to get them down closer to Chattanooga, and that drive certainly hadn’t helped their temperament towards each other. 

Rey muttered something to Finn, causing him to laugh as she sat down as far away from Ben at the table as she could while she, too brought out her airport lunch—she’d caved when she saw his sandwich, deciding last minute that if he could be a time wasting asshole, then so could she. Poe laughed in response, commenting something else about how shocked he was that it was supposed to storm later, then they all dug into their lunches, and the day got started. 

Analyzing a new artifact always sent a thrill down Ben’s spine, but looking at one that should’ve been impossible like this one was? He felt alive in a way that even his snide bickering with Rey couldn’t bring down. He wrote down his findings in his log book excitedly, keeping note of the time, the weather—which was growing increasingly cloudy outside in advance of the oncoming storm—, and his observations about where things were, what they were made of, and how the people appeared to be laid out. 

He alternated between writing down his findings in his official, rather expensive field journal—his log book— and another little composition notebook he kept on hand for another purpose. While in the journal he wrote about his work and was very scientific and methodical, he wrote something else entirely in the notebook. In his cheap little thing from Target, he wrote a letter, the recipient of which he’d never met, nor did he have any idea who she was other than the fact that she was a she and simply referred to herself as R. 

They’d started writing to one another six months ago, and developed an odd sort of friendship with one another ever since. Their letters back and forth detailed their thoughts and feelings about their lives, though neither one of them knew what the other did, and it was more of a means of keeping each other company despite the distance he knew separated them if the constant mentions of cities all over the world were anything to go by. 

Still whoever R was, she was better than the severe lack of friends he had at work or otherwise. Aside from her, his next biggest relationship was Rey, and they absolutely hated one another, which made it a nightmare whenever their respective universities decided they needed to be paired up for a dig. He glanced over at her as she inspected a piece of jewelry that still hung around a woman’s neck, using a little shovel from her tool belt to dig beneath her head so she could have better access to the back end of it. She quickly finished her digging, and promptly reached behind her to grab her own little yellow log book before she too began to jot down observations of her own into the book, her brows furrowed in concentration. 

Ben turned his gaze from her back to his little composition notebook, and began to write to R about how completely and utterly exhausted he was. His hands flew across the paper in a perfect, calligraphy style script as he told her about the day, vaguing about all the little details of the dig since they’d agreed to keep their lives perfectly anonymous. Still he figures it couldn’t hurt to complain about the weather of the south. It was a big place. He could be anywhere for all she knew. 

As the day wore on, he found himself wandering to the back of the cavern, watching as Finn beat at the walls with a rock hammer to take a look at the composition of the cave walls. “Anything interesting?”

Finn grunted as his rock hammer smashed into the side of the cave. “Depends on how interested you are in limestone. Or shale.”

Ben’s experience with geology had consisted of a single intro course when he was getting his Bachelor’s degree, and nothing further. He gave Finn a nervous laugh, told him he was good, and began to examine the cave wall with his own eyes. Trading the composition notebook for the log book, he quickly wrote down Finn’s observations about the rocks before he tucked both his notebooks into his backpack. 

Ben felt along the wall with his hand for a moment, then he walked away from it, and back over to where he found a rotten wooden chair, inspecting the structure of it to find that it did indeed match his knowledge for the style made in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. His hand skimmed over it carefully to avoid any splinters from the heavily weathered wood, and he wondered just how in the hell it had gotten here, and more importantly, how it had stayed hidden. 

Before he could think on it too long, a shadow appeared in front of him, the familiar form of Rey Kenobi staring down at him angrily. He slowly turned around. “Can I help you?”

“You’re standing on my log book,” she growled, and at first he shot her a glare, but then realized he was indeed standing on her log book. 

He quickly moved his foot. “Shit, sorry.”

“Watch where you’re stepping, asshole,” she grumbled as she bent down to pick it up before starting to walk away. 

“Jesus fucking Christ, I said I was sorry. What’s your fucking problem?” he asked, getting to his feet and following her in the vague general direction of the cave’s entrance. 

“My problem is you not watching where you’re fucking going.”

“My problem is your attitude,” he mumbled, but she still stopped in her tracks ahead of him, whirling around with her hand raised in the air before they were interrupted by a loud cry. 

“ _ ENOUGH! _ ” Poe shouted, putting down his notes on the table they’d set up as he walked over to them. “Both of you! Knock it off!”

“We can handle this, Poe, just leave us alone,” Rey muttered as she stepped away from Ben, putting her head into her hands. 

This time it was Finn who spoke up as he walked over to the trio. “Uh… I don’t know, Rey, I think the two of you need help.”

Poe shook his head. “No, it’s up to them,” he replied, resting a hand on Finn’s shoulder as he approached. “Besides, we have to get food soon, you know, real dinner. Not just hot dogs. Finn, why don’t you and I hike back down to the parking lot while the weather’s still good, and go make a food run while these two work out their issues?”

Finn nodded. “Sounds alright with me.”

A scoff left Ben’s lips. “You’re not seriously leaving me with her?”

“Or with him?” Rey asked, gesturing vaguely to Ben’s entire body.

“You two need to sort out your shit,” Poe told them, his voice sounding truly angry for the first time since they’d all joined up together as he got into Ben’s face, pointing a finger into his chest. “Cause for the past five hours, you’ve done nothing but yell at each other, and I’m tired of it!”

“Well maybe I wouldn’t yell if she weren’t such a—”

“Such a what, Ben?” Rey snapped, throwing her logbook against the cave wall as she, too stormed up to him, and put her hands on her hips.

His expression softened as she approached him, and he sighed as he shook his head. “No… Never mind. You’re…” He looked at Poe. “You’re right. We need to cool down. You guys go get the food. We’ll stay here… and try to find some common ground.”

Rey still stared at him like he was the devil incarnate, but slowly began to nod as she and Poe stepped back to stand closer to Finn. “I’m good with that,” she replied, then she looked at Finn. “You two better hurry back with the food just in case we try to kill each other.”

A laugh nearly escaped him as Finn and Poe both nodded, then they gathered their packs, and walked out of the cave, leaving Ben and Rey alone with the fire. As they left, the two stood there standing awkwardly near the cave wall for a minute before she finally looked away, and walked over to retrieve the log book. “Is it ruined?” he asked. 

She shook her head. “No, it’s fine,” she replied, then she glanced back up at him, and sighed. “Thanks.”

He felt stunned by the kindness of her reply, and he opened his mouth to tell her she was welcome, but was interrupted by the distant sound of rolling thunder. Turning his eyes on her, he could tell she’d definitely heard it, too, and he hadn’t just been hallucinating. They were both quickly back on their feet, running toward the entrance of the cave in seconds. 

Outside, tall, dark gray clouds had built up, towering high into the sky at a distance of no more than thirty miles from them, and if Ben squinted, he could see they were moving closer ever so slowly. “Shit,” he breathed. 

Rey actually laughed as she stood by his side, running a hand through her hair. “Yeah, Finn and Poe better get back here soon.”

Ben grunted, then he walked over to the nearest edge of the cave entrance, and sat down on a slightly too bumpy rock as he stared out at the encroaching thunderstorm on the horizon. Lightning flashed in the clouds in the distance, illuminating the red and yellow forest beneath the clouds in brilliant swaths or light. Moments later, he heard the rumble of thunder growing just a little bit louder, and as a breeze blew past him and Rey, he could tell this storm was going to be one of the bad ones. 

A part of him was thinking about grabbing one of the walkie talkies Poe has insisted on bringing and letting him know that he and Finn needed to get their asses back up there immediately, when Rey spoke first. “I actually love the rain,” she told him, then she laughed at herself. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You’ll just say something rude again.”

“I actually wasn’t going to,” Ben replied, then he shifted, turning to look at her surprised eyes. “I think Finn and Poe are right about us. We need to work out our shit.”

Her face softened as she sat down on the ground below him. “Why  _ do  _ we have shit, Ben? Why do we hate each other?”

In all honesty, he had no idea. All he knew was he’d said something stupid—the subject matter of which he couldn’t even remember—and she’d disagreed with him, and ever since then they’d been at each other’s throats at all hours of the day. Every time they’d gone on a dig together they’d hardly been able to even maintain basic courtesy with one another, their verbal arguments spanning the countless hours and days they spent at a site and annoying every single person they’d ever been forced to work with. For some reason, they just couldn’t get along, and it completely frustrated him that he had no idea why. 

“I don’t know,” he answered her after a while. “It’s just… as long as we’ve known each other…”

“We’ve been at war,” Rey said softly, then she looked out after the approaching storm. “Have we ever even had a real conversation? Or is it always just straight to arguing with us?”

Ben laughed. “Always straight to arguing. Every time,” he replied, finding it odd how easy he was starting to slip into casual conversation with her despite the months of anger resting between them. He turned toward her, and extended his hand. “You want to see if we can maybe call a truce? At least for the rest of the trip?”

She looked at his hand hesitantly, and while he understood her distrust of him, something about it still stung a little as she slowly moved her hand to meet his, and gripped it lightly. They shook hands firmly, and Ben felt the static electricity building inexplicably in the air  around him at her touch. 

Just outside the shelter of the cave, the first of the clouds passed overhead, and rain began to fall just a few feet in front of Rey and Ben as they dropped each other’s hands looked out into the distance, feeling the air pressure drop around them. “This one’s going to be bad, isn’t it?” Rey asked softly as she glanced up at him. 

He nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re right,” he replied, then he cleared his throat. “We should probably get a fire going. It’ll get cold in here.” With that, he moved past Rey, and walked back to where they’d all set their things down on the table earlier. He reached into the green duffle bag that Poe had announced carried all their firewood, and began to bring it into the fire pit the other teams had dug. 

Rey followed suit behind him as the sound of the pouring rain outside grew louder, and the wind began to blow the rain into the cave’s entrance, spraying the first several feet of its interior with cold water. There was a flash of lightning behind her, illuminating her shadow over the cavernous cave floor as she walked behind him toward the pit, and laid down the wood in a slightly chaotic pile. “Now what?” she asked him. “You got a light?”

Ben reached into the pocket of his jeans, and produced a cheap little lighter he’d picked up from a dollar general that morning. He flicked the switch, and a tiny little spark of orange appeared at its tip, which he stared at for a second, almost hypnotized by the sight before he touched it gently to the firewood, and watched as it ignited.  

Thunder rumbled as he stepped away, looking over at Rey as the firelight caught her dirt covered face. “I’d say that’s a light right there.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up.”

He put his hands up with a laugh. “Hey, what happened to a truce?”

“Truces only stand when you’re not being a complete asshole,” she muttered, sitting down by the fire so that she was facing the cave entrance, her gaze completely on the storm. 

A grunt left his lips as he sat down beside her, though he made sure to keep his distance since he was still hesitant to trust her. For all he knew, he’d say the wrong thing and she’d throw something at him. “I’m only a complete asshole when you’re a bitch.”

“Oh, I’m a bitch, am I?” she asked, flicking a nearby pebble at her feet into the fire pit. Her voice was twinged with anger, and Ben quickly realized he was treading a very fine line with her. 

“No, I didn’t mean… Well, you’re a bitch to me, that’s for sure.”

“If I am it’s only because you’re an absolute prick to me,” she muttered, then they both flinched as a particularly bright flash of lightning illuminated the cave, and suddenly the thunder wasn’t so distant anymore. He watched Rey cover her ears when the boom that resulted was loud enough to nearly deafen them both, then he looked at her in surprise. 

Trying to hold back a laugh, he looked between Rey and the storm for a moment, his gaze eventually settling on the whipping wind and pounding rain. “Are you scared of thunder?”

“Shut up.”

“Holy shit,” he breathed, then he collapsed against the cave floor cackling like a hyena, his hands coming up to cover his face as he processed the fact that his coworker, a grown adult, a seemingly fearless woman who’d cut him if he looked at her the wrong way—and if it wasn’t illegal— was afraid of fucking thunder. “Rey, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I’m glad you’re amused,” she grumbled, then she leaned back on her hands, and stared nervously at the storm. “It’s getting dark out there.”

Ben moves his hands, shifting so that he could get a better look at the cave’s exterior. Outside the clouds had gone from white to a deep, purple looking gray that threatened to go pitch black as the rain poured down onto the autumn colored forest below. The contrast of colors was actually rather beautiful, and Ben found himself hypnotized by the sight. “Wow.”

“Are you trying to tell me you’re enjoying this?”

“It just looks nice, Rey, I have eyes.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, then flinched as they watched a bolt of lightning strike the ground in the distance. Ben frowned at the sight, if the lightning was hitting the ground like that, it was a danger to Finn and Poe on their return hike to the campsite. For their own safety they’d have to avoid walking out into the rain, and they’d likely end up becoming stranded in the parking lot a mile away. That would leave him alone with Rey until the storm passed…

_ Oh no. _

The resulting thunder roared through the mountains, and he saw Rey covering her ears beside him as she watched the storm. “Oh, I really don’t like this.”

For once, he agreed with her. 

“Let’s try and make some food, huh? I’m hungry,” he suggested, not wanting to think about her fear or the prospect of being stranded in the cave with her while they waited for Finn and Poe. Before she could answer him with a yes, he was up on his feet and at their storage unit of a table rummaging through the cooler Poe had brought. He quickly found what he was looking for, and brandished the small package to her with a proud flourish. “What do you say to shitty American hot dogs?”

“You really expect me to eat that?”

“Finn and Poe might not be back for a while because of the storm. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”

She looked at him hesitantly, then she sighed, “Alright, do you have something we can stick them on?”

Ben dug around in the cooler some more before he produced a bag of buns and a few sticks that were formerly wire hangers from his closet. “Tonight we feast like kings,” he said sarcastically, then she threw her head back and cackled as he rejoined her by the fire. 

The two of them roasted their hot dogs in silence, both seeming afraid to say anything to break the sort of peace that had developed between them as they sat by the fire. The storm outside raged like a howling beast, the winds picking up to what Ben suspected was gale force, rendering the beautiful autumn forest beyond the mountain invisible as they watched.

As they ate, Ben took out his composition notebook, and began detailing to R the terrible weather he was facing. “ _ You wouldn’t believe what the weather’s like here. It was perfectly sunny earlier, and now it’s coming down like a hurricane outside. I’m also currently trapped with the devil, but I think we’ve made some kind of truce and she’s sort of nice when she’s not being rude as hell. Is it weird that I find her kind of—“ _

“What are you writing?” Rey asked, peering over her hot dog at him. 

He looked between her and his notebook. Did he answer honestly? Would she judge him for having a pen pal in 2018 when there were so many other, better ways to contact someone? With the way their relationship worked so far, he wouldn’t put it past her. “My, uh… friend. I’ve got a friend I write to sometimes.”

To his surprise, she didn’t judge. In fact, a broad smile developed on Rey’s face as she registered the fact. “Oh, that’s brilliant. I had no idea you wrote letters!” Her voice grew excited, rising in pitch as she spoke, then when she saw his confused expression at her enthusiasm, she sighed. “I have a pen pal, too. No idea who he is, but he’s out there somewhere.” She looked out into the rain, seeming almost mystified by the thought of the stranger on the receiving end of her letters. 

Ben quirked an eyebrow at her. “You guys agreed to keep anonymous, too?”

She gave him a nod. “Yeah, it’s better that way. You never know when the person on the other side might be a complete nutter.”

He laughed softly. “I hear that,” he replied, then she grinned at him, and they fell back into their comfortable silence as he continued to write his letter to R. “ _ Kind of attractive? I don’t know, we just had a bonding moment. Apparently she writes letters, too. Looks like we’re not alone.”  _ Then he paused, unsure of how to continue the letter as he glanced over at Rey, who was sticking another dog into the fire, finding himself newly intrigued by his seemingly antagonistic coworker. 

Halfway through their meal, Poe’s voice came over the walkie-talkie, announcing to them both news that set them both on edge all over again. “Ben, Rey? Do you read me?” 

Ben’s hand was on the walkie in seconds, and he was on his feet in an instant as he walked toward the entrance of the cave. “Yeah, Yeah, I read you. Where the hell are you guys?”

Behind him, Rey had stood abruptly to her feet as well, gripping her own radio in her hands. “Have you got food yet? These hot dogs you brought suck.”

Turning around briefly, Ben stuck his tongue out at her, then he listened patiently for the historian on the other end of the line to answer his question. “... Ben, I’ve got some bad news, buddy…”

_ Oh, sweet fuck.  _

“Finn and I finished our shopping an hour ago, but by the time we got on the road… uh… Ben the road’s gone, it’s covered in water.”

“What?”

“Yeah, we can’t get back to you, and that’s the only road to that spot. Until the waters go down, Finn and I are gonna have to hunker down near the city,” Poe replied, his voice sounding phenomenally exasperated. “You and Rey are just gonna have to not kill each other until tomorrow at least. You should have enough food to last a couple of days, if not, I’ll get up there come hell or high water… literally.”

Ben couldn’t bring himself to laugh at the joke, instead he turned to stare at Rey, whose jaw had dropped defeatedly at the prospect of being trapped up there.

She raised the walkie to her lips. “Poe are you absolutely sure there’s no other road? This storm’s getting bad.”

“I’m sure, babe, we’ve been looking at digital maps, hard copy maps from a rest stop… there isn’t a spare road.”

“Fuck.”

_ Same,  _ Ben thought, looking over at her sympathetically. He then spoke into his own radio, “Okay, well, Rey and I will figure out what the hell to do, you guys just get somewhere safe.”

“Will do, and again, I am so sorry to leave you up there. So very sorry,” Poe replied, then a sigh came over the connection. “Alright I’m gonna focus on finding Finn and I a hotel. See you tomorrow, or whenever.”

“See ya,” Ben replied, then he groaned as he clipped the walkie back on his belt, and turned to look at Rey, who had dropped her hot dog in shock since he’d last checked on her. “Shit.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me,” she replied, reaching up to run a distressed hand through her hair. “We should’ve gone with them.”

Somebody had to stay and guard the site, he wanted to argue, but he didn’t have the energy to. He’d been drained thoroughly by the day’s events, and as he looked out into the raging fury of nature beyond the cave, he knew he was going to be in for an even longer night. 


	2. Tension

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pulled the chapter count down since this wound up deviating from my original plan. Oh well, as Ao3 always says, brevity is the soul of wit.

_ “Dear Kylo, this is an absolute nightmare. I’m trapped in a cave with the devil and we just made peace, but I don’t know how much longer that’ll last if he keeps chewing with his mouth open. He’s so fucking loud and it’s been so quiet since about five minutes ago when we got the call that we were going to be holed up in here together tonight. Yay…  _

_ “Anyway, he hasn’t been too much of an asshole so far, and turns out, we have a bit more in common than either of us thought. He’s also got a pen pal. Imagine that. I mean, what are the odds in a year as tech savvy as this one that the two of us would both have a—“ _

Her pencil fell from her hand suddenly as she yelped at a particularly loud clap of thunder. Her hands clutched at her chest as she jumped up in fright, then she groaned. “God damn it, how are we supposed to spend the night up here when  _ that.”  _ She pointed to the raging wind and rain outside. “Is just twenty feet away?”

Ben scoffed, shoving the remains of his fourth hot dog into his mouth. “Stop being such a wuss, it’s not that bad.”

“It looks awful out there!” she protested, flinching as a particularly strong gust of wind howled past them, bending the trees of the mountains below. 

“What about the accent, then?” He was smirking now as he wiped the crumbs from his bun off of his hands. “What was it you were saying about not being from around here? Doesn’t it rain a lot in London?”

“Oh, eat a  _ dick,  _ Ben Solo!” she cried as she threw the remnants of her hot dog at him. He only burst into another round of raucous laughter, then much to her disgust, he picked up the fallen food, and shoved it into his mouth, causing her to gape at him openly. “That’s disgusting.  _ You’re disgusting _ .”

“Only for you, sweetheart,” he replied, then he winked at her as he kept chewing. 

Rey looked away from him, staring out into the storm for a few more minutes as the lightning continued flashing vibrantly outside. She closed her eyes as she waited for the inevitable boom of thunder, concentrating on the sound of the falling rain and the wind rushing through the trees as the boom shook the ground. She breathed in deeply as she opened them again to see the swirling haze of red and yellow leaves beyond the safety of the cave, and decided that he’d been right earlier. There was something beautiful about all the contrasting colors and the way they were lit in the gray of the storm; something in the dark clouds that brought about serenity even where there was chaos and destruction. 

She looked back at the site, her eyes falling on all the skeletal forms of the people who’d lived in the cave centuries before they’d found it. Had they ever witnessed a storm such as this? Had they ever been frightened by the thunder like she was? From what they’d been able to gather of their lifestyles, they were indeed colonists, and they hadn’t been in the cave for a terribly long time before whatever killed them had swept through. 

“What do you think happened to these people?” she asked Ben after a moment. “Do you think they died peacefully?”

He blinked, seeming surprised at first that she’d decided to speak to him, then he cleared his throat and looked around the room. She could see him taking it in with the same observational eye she’d used moments earlier and throughout the day. Under her watchful gaze he stood up, and walked about the room, observing each individual of the dozens as he walked. “They’re all just lying there. None of them seem to have any sort of blade marks or injuries on their bones…” He knelt down near a small body, likely belonging to a boy no older than ten as he frowned. “What can kill people without leaving a mark?”

Rey stood up, and walked over by his side, kneeling down by the boy as she looked over his uninjured form. “Disease,” she answered him, suddenly feeling a sense of unease wash over her as she looked down at the child. “Pestilence.”

Ben stared at it for a moment longer, then he seemed to come to the same conclusion before he stood up suddenly, and walked back over to the entrance of the cave, leaning against the rock just inches from where the rain came down violently in front of him. She watched him walk away for a moment, attempting to ignore where her eyes dropped to as he left, and the fact that she certainly liked watching him go. 

With a sigh, Rey pushed herself off of the ground, and walked up to the cave entrance to stand side by side with Ben. “Are you alright?”

He nodded, crossing his arms as he continued to stare out at the storm, a bright bolt of lightning illuminated his face, making him seem even paler than he already was before he spoke again. “It’s just incredible,” he breathed. 

“What is?”

“It’s been storming here for as long as these mountains have been here, which is—“

“Hundreds of millions of years,” Rey finished for him. 

“Will you ever let me finish a sentence?”

“No, I live to interrupt you.”

“Jerk.”

“Always,” she replied, leaning against the opposite cave wall. “But anyway, you were saying?”

“As I was saying, It’s been storming here a long time,” Ben said, his tone much more teasing than it would’ve been hours earlier. Maybe they actually had managed to make some sort of progress in their rocky relationship. His voice softened as he finished his sentence, his eyes gentle as they found hers. “But we’re the first people in four hundred years to see it like this. Nobody’s seen this since…” He gestured to the bodies strewn about the cavern. “Them.”

“Yeah,” she replied, realizing that what he was saying was the truth. Their eyes were the first pair of eyes to watch a storm from this cave for four hundred years. “That’s kind of…”

“Awesome.”

“Definitely,” she replied with a laugh. “It’s quite beautiful up here, I can see why they picked this as a place to live.”

Ben laughed, then his gaze fell back on the cavern, and he turned to look at it, a curiosity in his eyes she’d only ever seen when they weren’t looking at her. Whenever he’d looked at her before today, it had been in anger and annoyance. Not that she was much better, she certainly gave what she got. She cleared her throat. “What are you thinking about?”

“Hmm?”

“What’s on your mind, Ben?”

He looked over at her then, his gaze still curious instead of angry as his eyes met hers. “I wonder what it was like to live here. To call this place home.”

“Probably pretty nice, and a bit dirty,” she said with a laugh. “There’s dirt everywhere.”

“It’s a cave, Rey, of course there’s dirt everywhere.”

She stuck her tongue out at him teasingly, and he smiled as he fought back a laugh. Huh, when he wasn’t angry with her, Ben Solo had a pretty nice smile, it was almost… cute. She quickly shook her head of that thought, reminding herself of all the antagonistic things they’d done to one another. “We should see how much more we have to eat. There’s no telling when Finn and Poe will be back,” she told him, then she walked back into the cave, and began to search the coolers Poe had brought with them more deeply for  food. 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ben replied, then he pushed himself off of the wall, and joined her as the two of them began to explore the various bags that their teammates had left on the table. 

All in all, throughout the three bags and the cooler resting on the table, they’d been left with plenty of food. In fact, they had enough food to comfortably feed six people for two days, never mind that there was only Ben and Rey up there. They had three things of hot dogs, various cans of non perishable foods, and enough s’mores supplies to give themselves diabetes. More than that, they had enough beer to down an elephant—an exaggeration, really, since there was only a couple of twelve packs—as well as copious amounts of water bottles. They had enough to feed an army, which suddenly made Rey phenomenally angry as she came to a swift realization. 

“They left us up here on purpose,” she snarled, slamming the cooler shut—but not before she took out a can of beer from its depths, and popped the can open. 

Ben looked at her in bewilderment. “ _ What? _ ”

“There’s plenty of food up here! We all could’ve made it ages without needing supplies! Probably the whole week!” she shouted, then she raised the can to her lips, and took a few angry gulps before she set it back down on the table, and pulled her walkie from her belt. “Finn, Poe, do you read me?”

A voice came over the radio not a second later. “Yeah, we read you,” Finn answered her. “Why, what's going on, is everything alright?”

“It’s great, but you lied to us.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. We could’ve gone down there with you, but because you two decided you couldn’t handle some petty bickering, you left us up here  _ stranded! _ ”

There was a pause before this time, Poe’s voice took over the line. “Hey, I’m so sorry, Rey, but we made that call before we knew the storm was gonna get that bad.”

“Oh, now you’re sorry? You should’ve been sorry from the beginning!”

“Rey, I can’t control the weather, and I’m sorry, but you should’ve heard the two of you going at it. It was incessant. I wasn’t about to take that for five days so I did the only thing I could think of to do.”

This time, it was Ben who answered him. “Well, I hope you don’t mind us drinking all of your beer, cause you bought good stuff. This isn’t cheap, and you’ve left us alone with it,” he said into his walkie, grabbing a can of beer with his free hand. “I think you’ve made a big mistake.”

For the first time, Rey found herself openly grinning at Ben as the two of them locked eyes, holding a conversation without words as they agreed to completely drain Poe of his liquor supplies. 

“I’ll kill you both,” Poe promised them, though she could hear a hint of laughter in his voice as he spoke. “Don’t you dare.”

Ben winked at Rey, then he reached onto the counter where they’d left the hot dog wrapper earlier, and held it up to the walkie talkie. “Oh, shit, sorry, what was that?” he asked sarcastically. “You’re breaking up.”

“Ben, it’s a walkie talkie, it doesn’t work like that!” Poe protested. “Don’t you dare drink all my beer!”

“Fuck, I think we lost you!” Ben shouted into the radio, then he set down his can of beer, and turned the knob on top of his walkie to shut the tiny machine down. He then looked up at Rey, who had started to guffaw at his actions, and he motioned urgently for her to do the same as Finn and Poe began to yell at them to stop ignoring their messages. “Turn off yours!”

“Shit, you’re right!” She cried, hurriedly setting down her can as well before she reached up, and turned off the knob on her own walkie, rendering them in complete silence. In the aftermath of the confrontation with Poe, she and Ben stared at each other intensely, their chests heaving slightly from the excitement as they slowly developed grins on their faces. 

Ben’s eyes drifted down to the can of beer he’d rested on the table. “Shall we?” he asked, picking his up, and raising it into the air. 

“We shall,” Rey replied, raising her own can up to his, and clinking the two together before she took the can up to her lips, and drank. Her eyes remained locked on Ben’s as he too began to drink from his can, his irises seeming slightly darker in the flickering light of the flame. Feeling smaller somehow under his gaze, she broke the contact, then looked back at the pack of beer they’d stolen from, grabbing it out of the cooler, and parading it over to the fireplace before sitting down, and patting where Ben had been seated earlier. “Come on, then, we need to figure out some way to pass the time.”

He groaned. “At least they left us alcohol,” he muttered as he walked over to the fire, and sat down by her side. “Not intentionally, but still.”

“No, not intentionally at all,” Rey replied, taking another swing of her beer as she grabbed the journal she had been writing her latest letter to Kylo in. Perhaps since they’d been allowed so much free time, she’d be able to finish this letter.  _ “...Both of us would have a pen pal? Anyway, moving on, this is starting to feel more like a diary entry now than a letter, but honestly I feel like I’ve spent the bulk of the last year complaining about this guy to you, and now I’m trapped in a cave with him. I mean, what kind of shit luck is that?” _

“What kind of stuff do you tell yours about?” Ben asked after a moment, his voice genuinely curious and thoughtful.

“Huh?”

“Your pen pal,” he said, gesturing to the letter she was writing. 

“Oh, um… mostly just stuff that I go through, how bad the weather is…  _ you _ . I complain about you a lot. I reckon he’s tired of it.”

Ben hummed what sounded vaguely like a laugh. “Mine’s probably the same way. I complain about you a lot, too.” There was a small part of her that thought the concept sounded familiar. Both she and Kylo spent all their letters complaining about their shitty coworkers. What were the odds that they were the bane of R and Kylo’s existence? That he was Kylo?

They had to be slim. After all, surely pen pals couldn’t be as rare as she was making them out to be, could they?

Rey looked between him and her letter for a moment, and decided she wanted to be more drunk before she worked up the nerve to ask him about it. “So… Ben… um… How do we want to pass the time?” she asked, closing up her journal, and setting it off to the side. 

Ben took another sip of his beer, then he sighed. “We could play dumb drinking games.”

“Really?” she cocked her head in his direction. “You want to play a fucking drinking game? What are you about to suggest? Never have I ever?”

He shrugged. “Why not? It’s not like we have anything better to do.”

A laugh escaped Rey, and she tipped her can to him, then she thought for a moment. “Never have I ever… been stranded in a cave before tonight.”

Ben scoffed at her. “Seriously? That’s the best you can do?” he asked, staring at her in disbelief. 

“I’d like to see you come up with something better, this is hard!” she protested as she took another swig of her beer, noticing with disappointment that the can was nearly empty. 

“Oh, trust me sweetheart, I’m more than capable.” Ben laid back then, propping himself up on one arm as he looked up at her and thought for a moment. “This is never have I ever. We’re not supposed to ask about whether or not we’ve been in a cave before. We’re supposed to ask each other questions that are either really fucking stupid or way too personal and they get more intense the more drunk we are.”

She thought on this for a moment. “What’s your question, then?”

“I have never… hated someone without knowing their name first.”

Rey stared at him. “You definitely didn’t know my name when we first met.”

“I didn’t hate you then, I thought maybe you were having an off day, and maybe you deserved a second chance,” Ben admitted, taking a swig of his beer. “I decided I hated you on the second day we met.”

“How charming,” Rey replied, then she took a big gulp of her beer, finishing her first can with a toss toward the table they’d set their things down on before she reached for her second. “I have never… had a dream about you.”

Ben swallowed nervously, then he, too finished his can, chucking it in the same direction she’d thrown hers before he reached for another. A blush crept up his cheeks, causing her to giggle as she pondered just what context he’d had this dream in. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything,” she said, though she giggled as she put her hands up. “But, um… what happened in this dream of yours?”

“Nothing, nothing happened at all.”

“So I just stood there looking pretty?”

“Bold of you to assume I think you’re pretty,” he grumbled, though his cheeks only flushed a deeper shade of crimson as he stared at the ground, and she absolutely howled with laughter. 

Slowly, she came down from her high, and locked eyes with him as she took a sip from her can. “Will you at least tell me if it was good?”

“What?” He squeaked. 

“It was obviously a sex dream going by your reaction, so tell me, was I good in bed in your dreams?”

“I… I’m so not telling you this,” he replied, then he chugged what must’ve been half of the can in one go before he proceeded to stare out the window with an embarrassed look on his face. “It’s not relevant.”

Rey snickered under her breath. “So it was a sex dream?”

“I’m keeping my mouth _ shut _ ,” he replied, then they fell silent for a moment, and just as Rey was starting to think that he’d spend the rest of their time in the cave ignoring her, he spoke up again. “It was pretty good.”

Rey howled with laughter as another crimson blush snuck up his cheeks and he avoided her gaze. She took another swig of her drink before she leaned toward him. “Ben, don’t feel bad about it, honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t had one about you yet,” she admitted, then she slammed her hand over her mouth at the realization that she’d said far too much. 

This time, it was his turn to lose himself to fits of obnoxious laughter as he stared at her in the aftermath of her admission. “Oh, so what does that mean, Rey?”

“Nothing!”

“Rey…” he teased, throwing back another swig of his beer. “If I had to admit to having a sex dream about you, you can admit to thinking about having sex with me.”

“Who said I thought about having sex with you?” she squeaked, her voice several pitches—octaves, even—above normal. “I don’t think—”

“You know, I believe it’s my turn to ask you a question, Rey.” Her face paled as he grinned wolfishly at her. “I have never thought about fucking you in broad daylight.”

_ Shit.  _ She was well and truly busted, and no matter what she did, she was going to go down from this. Rey took in a deep breath, then she locked eyes with him, and brought her can to her lips before she proceeded to damn near chug the entire thing in an admission of her guilt. He looked thoroughly impressed by the time she finished, and as she set down the can, she let out an obscenely loud burp that echoed off the walls of the cave. 

“Classy,” he commented.

“Shut up,” she replied, wiping a droplet of her beer from her mouth with the back of her hand. “Damn, you weren’t kidding about these questions getting personal.”

He grinned. “The night’s still young, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart.”

“Whatever you say…” He took a pause, though his eyes never left hers before he added, “Sweetheart.”

“I’ll fucking kill you, I’ll leave your body to rot in this cave,” she muttered, continuing to drink from her can as she finished her sentence. 

Ben’s only response was to chuckle at her expense, then he too took a sip of his drink. “I can’t remember whose turn it is, so I’m going to assume it’s your turn to ask  _ me  _ a question, now. Feel free to torture me in anyway you want.”

Rey grinned at him as she set down her can, then the two of them made things worse and worse for each other. She learned things about Ben she never thought she even wanted to know, though she supposed that with the amount of time she spent thinking about him—mostly about ways to get back at him for the latest stunt he’d pulled— it shouldn’t have been surprising that she did, in fact, want to know more about him. Perhaps it would unravel the mystery behind why they’d hit it off so poorly when they first met. 

As the time went on, more and more beer cans began to litter the floor surrounding their camp table. Eventually, they’d had to break open the second twelve pack, and by then, Rey was starting to feel the impact of the alcohol, and the sky outside was pitch black whenever lightning wasn’t illuminating it. She’d hardly even noticed the passage of time, though, since she’d somehow wound up having too much fun with Ben fucking Solo of all people to care about how long they’d been trapped in the cave. 

“Okay, so let me get this straight, you’ve  _ never  _ been to Disney world?”

He shook his head. “Nope, my parents were always too busy dragging me to other places around the country. Life of a senator’s son, I guess.”

She sighed, then she took another sip of her drink. “I only went when I moved here,” she told him, tapping her fingers on the can while she shifted through her memories. “And I went by myself cause I didn’t know anybody.”

“Sounds like it was lonely.”

“It was.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, and his voice seemed so genuinely apologetic, she stared at him in shock. If someone had told her when she met Ben Solo that she’d ever hear him say those words to her and mean it, she would’ve told them to lay off whatever it was they were smoking. Yet here they were; both of them mildly intoxicated and giving each other warm smiles like they’d been friends for years. 

“It’s okay,” she told him, but she took another sip of her drink as she stared out at the still raging thunderstorm outside the cave. “Anyway… what should I ask you next?” 

“I don’t know, it’s up to you.”

“Hmm…” She thought for a moment, thinking over every subject they’d talked about over the last couple of hours while they’d been playing the game off and on. They’d talked about sex, their life experiences, who they hated the most in the workplace, whether or not they’d had dreams about one another… but they’d only just touched on the one thing they had in common. “I have never told my pen pal my real name.”

“Neither have I,” he replied, then he sipped his drink anyway. “I’ve always used an alias.”

Rey grinned at him. “Yeah, me too, it’s just better that way. You never know what sort of creep might be on the other side of those letters.”

“Yeah, I mean, I know they’ve got my address, but still. There’s something fun about maintaining that sense of anonymity.”

She laughed. “Exactly, even though I’ve told him all about you and a bit about my job… something about the fact that he doesn’t know my name...”

“He’s a he?”

“I mean, I’m not sure, but I think so.”

“What makes you think he’s a he?” Ben asked curiously. 

She shrugged, recalling the name used by her pen pal with a snort. “I don’t know, I just can’t imagine a woman signing her letters off as ‘Kylo,’ can you?”

Ben’s jaw dropped in that moment, and he stared at her like she’d just told him the most shocking thing he’d ever heard. Shock radiated from him in waves, and Rey stared at him in confusion as she wondered just what in the hell could’ve caused him to react like this. “Ben, are you okay?” she asked, but he didn’t respond, he simply continued staring at her like she was a complete mystery to him. 

“I…” he took in a shuddering breath, and sat up, seeming much more sober than he’d been a few minutes ago as his eyes locked into hers. “This is impossible.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“...  _ R? _ ” he asked, gesturing to the journal she’d discarded on the floor earlier, then it was Rey’s turn for her stomach to drop in her chest as she realized the reason for his shock. 

The person she’d been writing to for months, who she’d told countless secrets and complaints about Ben to, was sitting right in front of her. It should’ve been impossible. The odds against them ever meeting were too great, never mind the odds of them knowing each other and being effectively mortal enemies. Her voice left her for a moment, rendering her utterly speechless in the aftermath of his realization, and it felt like hours went by where they sat there just staring one another down, their jaws open in disbelief. The only sound that filled the room belonged to that of the thunder, the rain, and the wind outside, and the crackling of the fire that kept them warm in the cave. Other than that, it was completely silent. 

Eventually, Rey’s voice found her again, and she took another, long swig of her beer before she set it down, and blinked at Ben. “ _ Kylo? _ ”

“Holy shit,” he breathed, nodding as he confirmed once and for all to her that he was her pen pal, it really, truly, without a doubt had been him she’d been writing to all this time. While they’d spent all those hours arguing with one another in person, in their letters they’d formed an easygoing friendship, one that she suspected would take off if they ever met in person. It would seem she was wrong about that, but after that, knowing that he’d been the one she’d said so many kind and generous things to—and been told similar things in return— things had changed. Or at least, they were about to change. 

“It’s been you all this time?” Rey asked, her voice filled with disbelief. “In all those letters, it was always… you?”

“Yeah…” he breathed, then he brought his can to his lips, and finished it off before he chucked it in the direction of the table again, and reached for another. “You’re so much nicer in writing.”

Rey scoffed as she took another sip of her drink. “I could say the same about you, mate.”

“This is actually kind of awkward.”

“Hmm?”

“It means we’ve been complaining about each other all this time… to each other.”

Rey froze, remembering all the not nice things she’d said to Kylo about Ben, only now she knew she’d told them to… Ben. Oh, he was right. This was awkward, and more than that, it was extremely awkward. Especially when she remembered the time she’d told Kylo in a letter that she thought Ben had a nice—

“Do you really think I have a nice ass?” Ben asked after watching her panic for a moment, interrupting and finishing her thought for her. 

She shrugged, and took another sip of her drink. “I may not be able to stand being in your presence, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have eyes.”

The corners of his mouth twitched as another rush of pink flooded his cheeks. “That’s fair,” he replied, then he hesitated a moment before adding, “You’re not the worst on the eyes either, I guess.”

“You guess?”

Ben groaned, burying his face in his hands as she laughed at his embarrassment. “No, I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, then he put his hands down, and grabbed his beer. “I just meant you’re… kind of cute when you’re not yelling at me.”

“Only kind of?” 

“You’re impossible.”

“Apparently  _ you _ like it,” she said with a grin as she took another sip of her drink. “Alright, so you’re Kylo, then…” She took another sip of her drink. “Have you ever considered before today that I was R?”

“No. I honestly never thought that you were…” His sentence trailed off, then he said something else, but it was masked by a particularly loud clap of thunder. “... but I’m not mad that it’s you.”

“You’re not?” she asked, feeling slightly dizzy by this revelation, though she was more than happy to attribute that reaction to the alcohol coursing through her system. 

Hesitation filled the air as Ben took in a deep breath, then he shook his head. “No, I’m not. It… I think I understand you better now.”

“I think I understand you better, too,” she said softly, then she cleared her throat, and sat up straighter, groaning as the action made her tipsy mind feel dizzy. “Ben? I’m… I’m sorry I’m always such an ass. Half the time you don’t even deserve it.”

Ben blinked at her a few times, seeming more shocked by this statement than he had been by the revelation that she was his pen pal. It took him several seconds to gather his sentence as she watched, then he set down his drink. “I’m sorry, too. You don’t deserve it either.”

She laughed, taking another sip of her drink before she set it down on the floor beside her, then she looked back up at him, trying to think of what to say next and failing. Instead, she became hypnotized by the firelight as it danced on his face, illuminating him in a way that made him captivatingly stunning in a way she had never noticed before. He really did have nice eyes, a dark, brown color with flecks of gold brought out by the firelight, and his lips… Rey was no expert, but men with lips like that tended to be fantastic kissers. 

The moment she looked down to his lips, however, happened to be the exact moment he decided to glance back at her again, and she knew he’d caught her stare by the way his breath hitched slightly. Her eyes instantly locked back onto his, and she cleared her throat before she reached for her drink again. “Weren’t we playing a game?” she asked. “Before all this started?”

A smirk started to grow on his face. “Yeah, we were. I just can’t remember whose turn it is—“

“It’s—“

“I’m gonna go with  _ mine _ ,” he said, giving her a wolfish grin that made heat pool in her gut. “I have never…” he thought for a moment, then his eyes drifted down slightly, but in such a manner that she knew precisely what he was staring at. “I have never thought about kissing you.”

“Fuck you,” she hissed at him, feeling a blush creep up her cheeks as she took a sip of her drink—more accurately, it started out as a sip, but quickly digressed into a prolonged chug until she nearly finished half the can, and shifted closer to him to poke his arm with the end of her half-emptied beer. “Now you have to drink, too.”

“No I don’t.”

“You said you’ve never thought about kissing me, but asking that question means you have, therefore you’ve done it, and therefore,” she leaned forward so that their faces were inches apart. “You’ve thought about kissing me.”

He was breathing hard as his eyes drifted down to her lips, then back up to her eyes as he raised his can to his lips, and took a big, long, gulp before he looked at her again. “Your turn.”

“I have never… thought that I’m a little bored and we have a lot of time to kill,” she said, and there was heat in his gaze as they both took a drink. 

“I have never… wondered if you’re sober enough to do what I think this conversation is headed towards.” 

_ Drink.  _

“I have never… been entirely sober enough to do what this conversation is leading us to.”

_ Drink _ . 

They began to drift even closer, and Rey felt his breath ghost over her lips, as she spoke again. “I have never, wondered if you by chance happened to have a condom on hand.”

_ Drink.  _

“I have never brought condoms to a dig, I’m a professional,” he joked, then they both took a drink. 

She giggled at him slightly, finding it a mix of odd and wonderful that she’d somehow managed to slip into talking about sex this comfortably with Ben of all people. Perhaps they truly had just gotten off on the wrong foot after all, or perhaps it had everything to do with the fact that he was now actually the pen pal she’d developed a great connection with. 

“I have never…” she started, but found she couldn’t speak as she noticed just how close they were now. A bolt of lightning striking a distant tree outside illuminated their faces in a pale, white light, and for a split second she could see every little detail of his face as it stayed just a mere two inches from hers. For once, she failed to notice the ensuing boom of thunder as she lost herself to the intensity of Ben’s gaze, and six months of pent up tension prepared to unravel. 

Before she could think to finish her sentence, Ben reached up to cup her jaw with his free hand, his thumb skimming over the skin of her bottom lip in a way that made her heart skip a beat. “I have never…” His eyes locked onto hers, his irises dark as the corners of his mouth turned up, and he spoke again, “Gotten tipsy and fucked my nemesis in a cave.”

She gave him a sly grin, then she raised her can, clinking it against his before they both took one last sip of their drinks. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cave sex is happening.


	3. Caved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to edit this, but then I started falling asleep. LMAO so the reveal's in a few days, and hopefully you read this before then, but if not, howdy it was me the whole time. I'll go back in and edit it more later if I gotta. But it shouldn't be the worst. At the bare minimum, I don't think I spelled anything wrong. So there's that.

Ben’s heart was racing in his chest as he laid out his sleeping bag, providing them some sort of protection from the filthy cave floor. Rey was sitting back watching him, sipping from her beer as he laid out his bag by the fire. His breathing shuddered slightly as he thought through what they were about to do. 

She was consenting, he was consenting, and he was  _ definitely not  _ a virgin, but there was still something about it that had him feeling nervous. It reminded him of that Foreigner song, the one Finn and Poe had belted out along with the radio earlier on the drive up, their voices screaming, “ _ it feels like the first time,” _ as they drove around that windy mountain road. The thought of it brought a chuckle to his lips, and he heard Rey laugh in response before she tapped his shoulder. 

“What’s so funny?”

He shook his head. “I was just thinking about the drive up here, how Finn and Poe wouldn’t stop singing that fucking Foreigner song—“

“Even long after it was done playing?” she asked, giving him an affirmative nod. “Oh yeah, I remember. And then they wouldn’t shut up even after we both asked them to  _ multiple times _ ?”

“Kind if feels like foreshadowing in hindsight.”

“That’s so fucking cheesy.”

“You don’t seem to mind,” he teased with a wink, then she shrugged, taking another swig of her beer before she tossed the empty Can aside. 

“I don’t, and I think that sleeping bag’s laid out enough, so get over here before I  _ do  _ start to mind.”

Ben chuckled as he crawled back over to her, catching a bright bolt of lightning out of the corner of his eye. The ensuing thunderclap shook the walls of the cave, and their fire flickered unevenly as the ground settled again. “That’s one hell of a storm.”

“You’re not nervous, are you?” she asked, then she touched him for the first time—well, the first amicable touch, at least—as her hand came up, and began to fiddle with a loose thread on his shirt. 

He gave her a sly grin, then he leaned in closer to her. Two could play at this game. “Sweetheart, my only fear right now is that Poe will find some way to interrupt us.” She laughed at that, dropping the grip she had on her shirt to lean back onto her forearms. “You laugh, but we both know he would. I don’t think he’s too happy about me cutting him off.”

“If you think Poe would risk going out into this storm just to spite you—“

“I don’t.”

“Good, then we’ve got a lot of time to kill.”

Ben’s grin made itself known again as he crawled over to her, lying down on his side before he propped his head up on his hand. “We do, I wonder what we should do about that.”

“I have no idea,” she said casually, though there was a glimmer of mischief in her voice he’d never thought he’d hear before that day. It hit him then just how insane this was. They’d hated one another for months and months on end, and now they were flirting, he’d brought up the condom in his pocket, and they were about to— _ fuck _ . This day had certainly not gone the way he’d planned, but the more Rey looked at him like that, the less he found himself complaining. 

He swallowed, his mouth twitching slightly as he gestured toward the sleeping bag. “Get on the bag, but don’t take off your clothes,” he said, watching her jaw come ajar as he spoke. “We’ve got a  _ lot  _ of time to kill.”

Rey huffed quietly, but she didn’t offer him any complaints as she sat up and crawled on top of the bag he’d laid out. The crackling of the fire roared in his ears as she set herself down on top of the stiff, green outer layers of his sleeping bag, and though just hours earlier he’d been certain he hated her guts, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen as the light of the flames danced across her face—occasionally finding itself interrupted by a streak of white light from the storm outside. 

He took in a slightly nervous breath, then he steeled himself, and crawled over to her. More specifically, he crawled  _ over  _ her, making space between her slightly parted legs for himself as he settled on top of her, living for the way her breath hitched. “Maybe you’re the one who’s nervous.”

“Don’t ruin this by being yourself,” she told him, reaching up a finger and poking it into his chest. “Just fuck me.”

A laugh escaped him then as he realized how close they now were. His face was a mere few inches from hers, and he noticed for the first time how hazel her eyes were. He’d never even thought to pay much attention to their color before now, and that had been a damn waste of his time in hindsight. Instead of throwing insults back and forth with her, he should’ve been looking into those eyes and seeing all they had to behold—they shouldn’t have been enemies. 

“If you aren’t nervous, then why are you stalling?”

“What? I’m not I’m just… you have nice eyes,” he said, then she blinked a few times, and those hazel irises searched his own for a few seconds. 

“So do you. But now that we’re done with the dramatics, can you shut up and–“

She didn’t need to finish that sentence, and he had no intention of letting her. His eyes drifted down to her lips, and he noticed how soft and pink they looked for the first time. Had they always looked like that? He didn’t give himself time to wonder as he made the split second decision that he had to know what they felt like against his, and he leaned down quickly but gently, and shut her up with a kiss. 

For the first split second, she lay frozen beneath him, and he wondered if she’d even closed her eyes until she melted against him. Her warm, thin arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him to her as she returned his kiss, her mouth fitting with his like it belonged there—he was a puzzle and she was the missing piece. Ben hummed softly as he deepened the kiss, his tongue finding its way into her mouth as her palms opened, and he felt her fingers tracing shapes in his back. 

He wasn’t sure what he’d expected from kissing Rey. Maybe he thought it’d feel weird or since they’d only just started to get along it would be god fucking awful, but he didn’t feel either of those things. No, the kiss was nice; a sort of soft and sweet thing he hadn’t felt with anyone in a long time. There was something about it that made him sure he’d remember it for years to come, perhaps it was the atmosphere around them—the thunder and the fire, the wind and the rain outside—or maybe it was something else. He couldn’t tell just what it was yet, but he would certainly be willing to figure out what made kissing the woman he’d hated hours ago so enthralling. 

After a few seconds, he pulled away just enough to see her face in full in order to gauge her reaction to it. Both of them were breathing a little harder than they’d been a minute earlier, and her cheeks had flushed completely red—this time it was unmistakably not caused by the heat of the fire. The sight of her kiss swollen lips and rosy cheeks beneath him sent a wave of pride washing over his entire body, and he nearly shivered against her. 

Rey stared up at him for a few seconds, her chest heaving as she watched him, likely doing the exact same thing that he was—seeing his reaction, determining whether or not he enjoyed it as much as she had. He gave her a nod, then he reached up a hand, and cupped her jaw before he tilted her lips back up toward his, and kissed her with a lot more passion than before. Their first kiss had been soft, tentative, and sort of peaceful like the fire beside them that warmed the cave. Their second was the storm outside, all crashing and explosive, more rough and intense. 

Her hands abandoned the gentle strokes on his back, moving up to find their grip in his hair, tugging at a few of his black locks tightly enough for him to gasp into the kiss, which caused her to chuckle with pride beneath him.  _ Game on, R.  _

Without another thought, Ben propped himself up carefully on his elbow, then his free hand began to snake its way up the denim covering her hip until it reached the hem of her shirt. His fingertips then gently slipped beneath it, gliding up a few more inches until his cool hand brushed up against skin that felt almost burning hot. She moaned against him as his hand continued its ascent beneath her shirt, victory hitting him in the aftermath of that gloriously musical sound as he felt up the muscular planes of her abdomen. Briefly, he felt surprise at how fit she was, but he pushed that feeling aside as he broke away from the kiss briefly for air, then he leaned down and began to press kisses to her neck as her breathing became uneven under his touch. “Is this okay?” he asked, pressing one on the ridges of her throat. 

“Ben, it’s… it’s perfect. Don’t… don’t stop…” she panted, then he gave her a small laugh, and resumed his work, his hand sliding up her shirt until his fingers found the edge of the sports bra she had worn for the day’s hike. 

“These need to come off,” he murmured, then she was the one laughing. 

“You need to come off first,” she told him, and he snickered as he pulled away from Rey, giving her just enough room to pull her shirt off of her so that she lay before him with only that sports bra covering her upper half. He was certain his pupils had dilated just from the overwhelming feeling of desire alone. His eyes raked over her exposed torso, taking in every detail of Rey’s body. 

When he laid back down over her, both of his hands immediately set about exploring Rey’s skin, palms gliding over it as he committed her to memory. He gave her a mocking frown when his fingertips came upon the fabric of her bra again, then before she could ask him what was wrong, he pinched a piece of gray cotton between his fingers. “I said ‘these’ need to come off, not just the one thing, multiple.”

“You’re so bossy,” she replied, but still her hands reached up, brushing over his on their path to the hem of her bra—sending shivers down his spine—then she began to pull it off of her body, and Ben could feel his cock growing painfully hard in his pants as he watched her toss it aside, leaving her upper half completely bare beneath his gaze. “Better?”

“Much,” he assured her, letting one of his hands slide up further, his fingertips skimming the underside of one breast as he took her in. “You’re…”

“I’m what, Ben?” she asked innocently, though he could see the corners of her mouth twitching upward as she watched him. 

“A jerk,” he replied, then she giggled as he leaned down over her again, his hand slowly moving up the small expanse of her breast as he moved. “A complete,” he pressed a kiss to her lips. “Fucking jerk.”

Rey bit her lip and shrugged. “It’s my specialty.”

“I believe that,” he said, then he bent down and kissed her again, dividing his attention between kissing her like she deserved to be kissed and the thumb that had started to slowly circle her nipple. She barely held back a sharp moan, her fingers tightening their grip in his hair as she reacted to his touch. 

One thing he was learning very quickly about Rey—she didn’t want to be, but she was  _ reactive _ . Every single touch elicited some sort of response from her, which had him eager to figure out what she’d be like with a few more layers of clothing removed. 

Thunder boomed in the distance, and she held onto him a little more tightly as the noise shook the ground beneath them. He remembered her fear of thunder then, which he’d mocked earlier, but now felt the urge to shield her from it. “Don’t be afraid,” he said softly as he pulled away from her. 

“I’m not,” she replied, her eyes hooded as she looked up at him, and he would swear to anyone who asked that it was just the breeze from the storm outside, but he shivered at the look she gave him. There was something in that stare that he hadn’t seen in anyone else’s eyes—at least, he hadn’t seen it directed at him. 

Gathering his wits together, Ben gave her a nod. “Good,” he said, then he resumed his work on her nipple, pressing kisses to her collarbone as he worked his way toward the breast he hadn’t given attention to yet. He heard her say his name under her breath as his kisses reached her chest, and began to ascend the previously untouched swell of her breast. Soft little pants left her lips, sounding like music to his ears as he finally took her nipple into his mouth, and Rey arched up into him. 

“Oh my god,” she breathed, her hands running through his hair in a way that nearly had  _ him _ moaning under her touch. “Ben…”

The sound of his name from her lips was going to be the death of him, he was certain. Still he forced himself to focus, putting all of his attention into getting as many noises out of Rey’s mouth as he possibly could. An idea came to his mind, but he pushed it aside, making the quick decision that they had plenty of time on their hands, and it could wait a few more minutes. He slowly released himself from her breast, then he moved back up to her lips, claiming them beneath his own as he held her tightly against him. 

She was shaking slightly from the chill in the air; the winds from the storm were just strong enough to penetrate the cave and the warmth from the fire. He pulled away from her briefly, asking if she was okay, and waiting until he saw her nod before he kissed her again, then his hand reached for the button of her shorts. Rey shivered again as his thumb pushed the button through the loop, and his fingers gripped the zipper, pulling it down slowly until he could feel the fabric of her underwear beneath his fingers. 

Impatient as ever, Ben’s hands reached for both pieces of clothing, and he broke their kiss again as he began to pull them off of her. She lifted her hips to help him in his task, grinning down at him as he slowly peeled them off of her. “Is it kind of weird that we’re going this in a cave full of dead bodies?”

“Rey, you know those people probably fucked in here, too, right?” he asked, and she snorted her laughter. “We’re just repeating history.”

“Fair enough,” she replied, then she kicked off her boots and the fabric he’d gathered at her ankles, and he slowly crawled back up between her spread legs, unable to stop himself from staring at her entrance as he moved, that idea once again settling itself in his mind. 

Ben stopped moving when his face was almost level with her chest, then he smirked at her, tracing his hand up the skin of her inner thigh as he went. Rey’s breath hitched as his fingers finally skimmed over the skin at the apex of her thighs. They were only lightly brushing over her, but he could already tell she was wet before he even thought to press his finger inside her. “Do it,” she said, still trembling slightly. 

“I plan to,” he replied, slowly bringing his finger up to her clit. “But it’s like we’ve been saying, we’ve got a lot of time to kill.” As if on cue, thunder boomed loudly outside. “And that storm’s not letting up anytime soon.”

“I’ll kill you.”

“I’d like to see you try,” he told her, then he pressed his thumb to her clit, massaging little circles into it that had her gasping beneath him. The resulting smirk that appeared on his face had her threatening his life again, then he shook his head, and pressed a kiss between her breasts. “I’d,” he kissed her again, this time lower than the last. “like,”  _ kiss,  _ “to,”  _ kiss _ , “see,”  _ kiss _ , “you,”  _ kiss _ , “try.”

He slid a finger down to her entrance as his kisses drew lower and lower, gently pushing one finger into her as he went—which filled him with another wave of pride at just how wet she really was— causing her to openly moan. Her reaction to what he planned to do next was going to be the end of him, he was certain. As he began to pump his finger in and out of her, his mouth finally reached the apex of her thighs, and he could feel the anticipation in the air around them as she watched him. He could see out of the corner of his eye that she was holding her breath, though whether or not she intended to do so was a mystery. 

Ben’s eyes met hers one last time, then he gave her a wink as he went down on her, finding her clit immediately as his tongue swirled around it like he’d done with his thumb a minute earlier. Rey’s head went back as she gasped from his actions, then he heard her swear loudly enough that it echoed off the walls of the cave. Something about hearing “ _ fuck!”  _ repeated off the cave walls like that had him nearly crying laughing against her, but he managed to hold himself back from it as her hands fisted into his hair, and suddenly it was less funny. 

The next word out of her mouth was decidedly less comedic, and his name echoing off the cave walls was easily the sexiest thing he’d ever heard. He had a thought that he’d like to hear it again and again and never stop until the day he died, but then he had another thought that he was getting way ahead of himself. After all, they had yet to define this as anything beyond a one night stand. The night was truly just beginning. 

“ _ God fucking damn it,”  _ she breathed as his lips closed around her clit, and sucked, causing her to struggle not to writhe beneath him as her shouts echoed off the cave wall, becoming increasingly vulgar and less coherent. He could see her losing herself to the sensations brought about by his mouth, and he chuckled against her. The vibrations from that seemed to have an unintended—but wonderful effect as the grip she had in his hair tightened, causing him a bit of pain that had his cock hardening unexpectedly. He hadn’t quite known he was into that.  _ Huh.  _

As he continued to taste her, he wondered how close she was getting. He fully intended to make her come before he got the chance to, after all. At some point she’d stopped using words and had resorted to some sort of incoherent babbling mixed in with her moans, so he figured she couldn’t be too far off as he inserted another finger into her, and picked up his pace. 

“ _ Yes,”  _ she panted, the first understandable word she’d uttered in minutes. “ _ God, yes. _ ”

“Are you close?”

She only gave him a nod in response, humming contentedly as she let go of his hair with one hand, and used it to prop her head up to look at him. “Very,” she breathed. “So don’t stop.”

Ben smirked as he continued to drink her in, feeling her shake beneath him as he brought her closer to her orgasm. “Rey,” he said, waiting until she looked at him before he spoke again. “I want you to come for me.”

“Holy shit,” she breathed, then he went down on her again, working at her clit until she was a complete mess beneath him. 

The fire and the storm both roared in harmony around them, creating the illusion that the world around them was a chorus building to a crescendo as he brought her closer and closer to her climax. His fingers curled inside of her, hitting a spot that made her cry out incoherently as she met his eyes again, and he noticed her flushed cheeks in the firelight 

“Ben, I’m gonna—“

Rey didn’t even get the warning out before suddenly he felt her fluttering around him. She came into his mouth with a shout loud enough for the entire mountain range to hear, her cry bouncing off the cave walls for him to hear over again—which filled him with  _ delight  _ as the greatest sound he’d ever heard repeated itself to him. He hummed against her clit, causing her to writhe again beneath him as she rode out her orgasm. 

She panted heavily as she came down from her high, then she looked down at him again as he slipped his fingers out of her, then she loosened her grip on his hair as she reached for his shoulders, pulling at the fabric of his shirt forcefully before he could prepare himself. Without warning, he found himself face to face with her again, and her arms wrapped around his neck, her fingers tangling into his hair as she pulled him down to her in the most intense kiss Ben had ever shared with someone. 

It was a hard and intense thing that ignited something within him that drove him to kiss her back with just as much fervor as she was kissing him. He wondered vaguely if she could taste herself on his tongue, on his lips as her own darted out to taste him, drinking him in as he’d drank in her just a moment prior. That thought he’d had about whether or not this was a one night stand came to mind again, and as her lips caressed his, he decided he was going to ask her if they could at least make it two nights. He figured he had to do this with her at least one more time before he died. The universe wouldn’t be right otherwise. 

Rey slowly released him from her grasp, and she pulled away from the kiss she panting hard as she pressed a finger into his chest. “I don’t care... when, and I don’t… care how—actually... I care when, but anyway— _ that…  _ is happening… again… and it’s happening… frequently. Do we… understand each other?”

Another smirk blossomed on his face as he looked down at her. “Perfectly,” he said, then he bent down and kissed her again with as little warning as she’d given him, and she hummed into the kiss as she returned it. He then felt her hands reaching for his clothes as she kissed him, only breaking for air once before she went back in, and began to peel his shirt up his torso. 

His heart was racing in his chest as he pulled away from her to tear his shirt over his head, and toss it next to her clothes beside the sleeping bag he’d laid out before he turned back to her and leaned down—

She put a hand against his sternum, her jaw falling open as her eyes took in his bared chest appreciatively, the hand she’d placed there slowly gliding its way down the planes of his abdominal muscles as he took in a nervous breath. If the look on her face was anything to go by, though, she certainly liked what she saw, and he exhaled his relief as her fingertips ghosted over his skin all the way down to the seam of his jeans. “Ben… we should’ve had hate sex a long time ago.”

He laughed, but there was something about that statement that begged him to wonder exactly what this waZ again. Only this time, he decided he actually had to ask her out loud, not just in his head. “Is that what this is?” he asked, his tone shockingly serious. “Hate sex?”

Her own expression sobered beneath him. “I… I don’t think so, no.”

“What is it, then?”

“Something that’s going to happen again,” she said, then she swallowed. “Can we figure it out later, though?”

He nodded. “Sure.”

“Perfect, now I believe it’s your turn,” she said, a hint of mischief in her eyes as she placed both palms on his chest, and smiled up at him. 

A sarcastically inquisitive look appeared on his face as he stared off into the far wall of the cave. “I think it is,” he said, living for the way she giggled beneath him as he turned his gaze back on her. “We’ll have to do something about that, won’t we?”

“I think we will,” she replied, then the last thing he saw before she kissed him again was a flash of lightning illuminating her face, the ensuing thunder timing itself perfectly with the reunion of their lips. 

He could still taste her on his own tongue from earlier as she slipped hers into his mouth, and he relaxed against her, pressing a little more of his weight into her body than he had been previously. 

Another much louder boom of thunder followed that first one, and Rey flinched as she kissed him, causing him to pull away, and cup her cheek tenderly with one hand. “Hey, look at me,” he said, his voice softer than it had ever been around her. “It’s gonna be okay. We’re safe in here.”

“I know, I know,” she replied. “I just hate loud noises.”

He thought for a moment, then he glanced back on the fire, which was crackling softly as it burned bright enough to illuminate almost the entire cave. “Then listen to that,” he said quietly. “The crackling of the fire, the pouring rain, those are soft.” His hand reached back, and he began to stroke her hair. “You’re safe.”

Without saying another word, she pulled him back down to her in another kiss, and reached for the button of his pants. Ben kicked off his boots as she moved, waiting until she completely unzipped him before he began to pull both his jeans and underwear down past his hips, shivering slightly as the cool air hit his exposed skin just like she had. He continued to kiss Rey until he had to pull away to remove them entirely, then before he discarded them, he reached into his back pocket, and pulled out the blue-wrapped condom he’d mentioned to her earlier. 

Another round of laughter escaped her as he put the wrapper between his teeth, and tore it open. “What?”

“You were just carrying that around in your back pocket all day? Did you have a psychic vision and just know you were going to get laid tonight?”

“I swear, there’s a good explanation for this.”

“I’d like to hear it.”

“Maybe later, right now I want to—“

“No, now,” she insisted, though there was a teasing little smirk on her face as she pressed her palms against his chest again. “Why do you already have a condom in your back pocket?”

“I… uh… haven’t worn these jeans in two months and I had some plans then that… fell through.”

“Ben, what the fuck?” she asked, laughing even harder, which he hasn’t thought was possible. 

He shook his head, feeling his own cheeks flush beet red as he held the condom in his hand, then he reached down, and slowly slid the condom over his cock as Rey got over her fit of laughter. When she finished, he crawled back over her, and her face grew serious again. “Who would’ve thought…” she murmured. 

“Hmm?” he asked as he began to position himself at her entrance. 

“Never mind,” she replied, then she looked down. “I should warn you, though. It’s been a while since I’ve done this.”

“Me too,” he admitted sheepishly, then he sighed, and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Let’s figure it out again together?”

Her response was so quiet he almost didn’t hear it. “I like that plan.”

Ben grinned. “Good,” he replied, then he slowly began to press into her, and she gasped as he moved. “You okay?”

She was looking down when he met her eyes, but they quickly moved back up to lock onto his, and a teasing smile appeared on her face. “It’s true what they say about tall men,” she joked, then he groaned as she laughed. 

He quickly shut her up by thrusting into her another couple of inches more, and she gasped again. “I thought it was my turn,” he whispered to her, then she moaned as he went a little deeper in, taking it slowly so he could be certain he hadn’t hurt her. It took all of his strength to try to ignore the way she felt around him, wet but just tight enough that it felt like he’d ascended. 

“I live to make you miserable,” she told him, then she wrapped her arms around his back. “So that’s deep enough,” she added, lowering her voice in a way that nearly made  _ him  _ shiver. 

The corners of Ben’s mouth twitched up in a hint of a smile, then he bent down, and kissed her again before he pulled back, and began to thrust into her properly. Rey gripped his back tightly as he started fucking her into the sleeping bag, a clap of thunder drowning out the first moan he let out into the open air of the cave. Rey’s legs wrapped around his hips, and she met him thrust for thrust. 

Ben pressed kisses along the side of her neck as pleasure began to build within him. Still, it was as he promised her, they were going to take their time. Hell, with the way she made him feel, he was willing to do this with her all night long if she was. He sucked a mark into her skin like it was a promise, something for her to hold onto as a reminder of what they’d done until they inevitably did it again, then he’d leave her another one so she always had traces of him on her skin. 

As he cried out from the feeling of Rey around his cock, he wondered how they’d gotten here. How had they gone from fighting so badly they’d forced their teammates out of the Abe hours earlier, to fucking passionately like they’d been lovers for years? 

One thing was for sure, they’d made a massive mistake by fighting most of the time they knew each other. What was going down in that cave was one of the only times Ben had felt whole, had felt  _ right  _ in so long. The way Rey moved beneath him made him feel alive, it reignited the fire in his veins as he pulled away from her neck, and crashed his lips against hers much less tactfully than he had minutes earlier. The kiss was still wonderful, still sparked like the lightning illuminating the sky outside, but it wasn’t as smooth, it had none of the gentleness from earlier. It was all raw, passionate heat as he took what he’d previously used as hatred, and poured it into giving Rey the best night of her life. 

Already Ben could feel his orgasm building within him, and as Rey rocked against him, he whispered into her ear in between pants, “I’m close, Rey... I’m really close.”

Another loud swear left his lips as her nails raked down his back in response, and he was definitely discovering he was a little bit into experiencing some pain with his pleasure. Ben kissed her again to disguise the moan that threatened to escape him as she continued to meet his thrusts. 

The sleeping bag beneath them was in complete disarray as Ben got closer and closer to his peak, then before he let himself come, he let a hand slip down between their bodies, his thumb searching for her clit as he continued kissing her. Once he found it, she broke the kiss as she moaned against him. “I’m not complaining… but what are you doing?”

“Come with me,” he said, pressing a kiss to the line of her jaw. 

“Oh my god, where have you been all my life?” she panted, then he thrust into her again, earning him another shout of, “ _ Yes!” _  as he brought them both into their climaxes. 

The pressure that had been coiling inside of him reached a breaking point, and suddenly, with little time to warn her, it snapped, and he came with a shout that would’ve been heard by the entire valley if not for the wind outside. Rey followed soon after, while he was still within his own mind enough to continue circling her clit before he lost himself completely. Her name fell from his lips over and over again as he came down from his high, his vision refocusing as she lay there beneath him, breathing hard as she too came down from her own orgasm. 

Ben’s breathing shook as the cold air from the storm began to hit him, and he could see her shivering beneath im as it hit her too. He slowly pulled out of her, causing them both to groan as he pulled away, removing the condom from himself before chucking it aside for them to deal with later. “Get in the bag,” he told her, then she immediately gave him a nod, and the two of them began to unzip it from both sides of the green fabric. 

Once it was unzipped, Ben gestured for her to crawl inside, and she gave him an appreciative nod as she did so. He waited until she was settled in there before he joined her, wrapping the bag around them like a warm blanket just as it was supposed to be, though he certainly enjoyed sharing it with her more than he liked sleeping in it alone. “Better?” he asked softly, reaching up a hand to brush her now tangled hair out of her face. 

“Much,” she replied, then she rolled onto her side, and wrapped an arm around his chest, moving closer until the front of her body was flush against the side of his. Ben briefly broke the embrace to remove his arm from the space between them, and wrap it around her shoulders before she resumed her hold on him, her head nestling itself nicely in the crook of his shoulder. “That was fantastic.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I can’t believe we didn’t think of doing it sooner. We would’ve had  _ great _ hate sex. Truly legendary.”

“So what was that, then? We didn’t talk about it much earlier,” he said, his fingers tracing circles in the ridges of her spine as he held her against him.

“Mmm, we didn’t, but can we talk about it tomorrow? I don’t… I don’t want to think tonight.”

Ben nodded in agreement, then he snickered quietly to himself. “That’s fair, but…”

“But…?”

“I have never wanted to ask you… if you’d like to do that again in a few minutes.”

“Who said I wanted to wait a few minutes?” she asked, and if they’d still had their beers, he was certain they both would’ve drank. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go


	4. Sunset

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ITS THE END. Now I only have three WIPS lmao. But thanks for the prompt, Lush, this was fun. Hopefully the ending does it justice, and thanks again, babe.

Several hours later, Ben and Rey lay beneath the sleeping bag as the fire crackled loudly in the background. The storm beyond the cave refused to subside as Ben’s lips lazily caressed hers, and she hummed softly into the kiss as their shared body heat warmed her even as the cool air drifting in from outside dried the sweat that had developed on her skin. Soft little gasps left her mouth as Ben moved away from her lips, and began to plant kisses along the side of her neck, but not in a manner that would be leading up to anything.

They were both far too spent for that.

Rey’s hands gently stroked his hair as he pressed his lips to the undoubtedly slick skin of her neck, she shuddered against him as he wiped her damp hair away in order to achieve his goal. Her breathing quickened, but only slightly, not like it had earlier when they’d first started. No,  she was exhausted, and it felt _fantastic_.

She’d been with other people before, but never had anyone been able to make her feel this much like she’d just melted into a puddle after her third _—_ or was it fourth _—_ orgasm hit her. There had never been anyone who fucked her the way he had, and god damn it she was so full of regret for all of the hate sex they’d never had on any of the digs they’d taken before.

Eventually, Ben pulled away from her neck, and looked down upon Rey with hooded, exhausted eyes before he brought his lips to hers once more. She barely fought back a smile as she returned his kiss, her tongue sweeping along his lower lip as her hand cupped his jaw. It had only been a few hours, but already she knew; _she could get used to this._

Rey kissed him slowly, gently until she needed to breathe again, though she wasn’t sure how much time passed before that occurred as the haze that was in her brain slowly cleared itself away. After a while, she pulled away, and brushed a lock of his dark hair out of his face as she grinned at him. “That… that was brilliant…”

A small laugh escaped Ben’s lips, then he rested a hand against her hip. “Yeah, not bad.”

_SMACK!_

“You absolute ass.”

“You seem to like it.”

“Shut up,” she breathed, then she pulled him down to her again, and kissed him before she pushed his shoulder so she could roll on top of him.

The sleeping bag was no doubt crumpled to all hell, and had completely shifted from its original position, but Rey didn’t care as she pressed him into the ground with as much strength as she still had left within her. Her arms felt like jelly as she moved them to rest on his chest, and as he returned her kiss, she wondered when she’d last felt this content. A vague part of her thought it might’ve been never, but she pushed that thought aside, not wanting to think about what it might mean at the moment.

Ben pulled away from the kiss before she was ready. She practically whispered as his mouth disappeared from hers, but any sound she felt tempted to make disappeared in her throat when she saw the way he was looking at her—like he’d been searching for something for years and finally found it. And maybe that meant something deeper than she wanted to think about, and maybe it just meant they’d had really good sex, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Are you always that loud?” Ben asked, thoroughly ruining the moment as his sarcastic tone cut through the serenity in the cave.

“Oh, shut the fuck up you weren’t any quieter, the whole mountain could hear you!”

He laughed in response, then he nodded. “Okay, that’s fair, but we’re the only people on the mountain. The only things we bothered were the trees.”

“Oh, the trees have ears now?” she asked, then she yawned as they both giggled at the thought. “What about all the bodies? We’ve just… Ben this is technically someone’s grave…”

He paused a moment, contemplating what she’d said, then he shrugged. “Rey, people have fucked in weirder places on digs.”

“You make a fair point, a cave is… tame by some standards.”

“Do you remember John? Tall John, not short John?”

“Yeah, I do, why?”

Ben’s chest shook as he laughed beneath her, then he sighed. “Did anyone ever tell you why he got fired?”

“No, I thought he quit.”

He shook his head. “He got fired because he was in Pompeii one night…”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yeah.”

“And he took a local in there and… right next to all the bodies.”

Rey’s nose crinkled. “Oh, that’s disgusting.”

“It gets better, because they caught him with his face between her legs… and get this, the site was uh… it used to be a brothel.”

Jaw falling open, Rey slowly began to lose herself to laughter as she collapsed into a heap on top of Ben, conjuring up the image of her old coworker getting busted in the brothels of the destroyed city. “Oh, that’s just too good,” she said, then she let out another yawn, and Ben frowned.

“You tired?” He asked, but before she could respond, he yawned as well, the sound echoing off the cave walls not unlike certain other noises they’d both been making.

“I think we both are,” she murmured, then she rested her chin over one of the hands she’d placed on his chest. “We should probably sleep.”

“What time is it?” he asked at the same time, then he looked over by where he’d discarded his jeans earlier, and when she followed his gaze she saw his phone lying there on the rock surface. Limestone and shale, Finn had called it, but whatever it was little chunks of it had fallen onto Ben’s screen, probably from what they’d been doing for the last few hours.

Without him having to say anything, Rey slowly rolled off of him until he was able to reach out and grab his phone. Seconds later, the bright blue screen filled her vision, and the time revealed itself… to be the early hours of the morning. They both winced at how late it had gotten, but in their defense, Finn and Poe _had_ left them alone out there with nothing else to do. It wasn’t entirely their fault they’d stayed up so late.

She yawned again as he settled back in beside her, and as her eyes started drifting shut, Ben wrapped her into his arms, his warmth effectively shielding her from the chill in the breeze that washed over them. The fire they’d built was slowly dying in front of them, too, adding to the cold. “Hey, Ben?” she asked softly.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

He looked down at her in confusion. “For what?”

“For everything. The letters you wrote… the alcohol…” Her eyes flicked up to meet his as the corners of her mouth twitched into a grin. “The sex. All of it.”

“No, I think I should be the one thanking you for all that,” he protested, then before she could say anything, he shook his head. “Your letters always made my day, _R._ Sometimes things would get bad, and I’d come home, and there was a letter from you.”

“Yours made my day, too,” she promised him, then she nuzzled her cheek into his chest. “I always thought you were absolutely hilarious.” A laugh escaped her lips again, and she again found herself amazed that after all that time they spent hating one another, they’d wound up laughing together with ease. “It’s weird, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“We were at each other’s throats by day,” she explained, thinking back on all the arguments they’d had, the ones that their coworkers could hear down the hall, or that echoed off the walls of some ancient site where every day had felt like they took ten paces and shot muskets in a duel. “And by night, you wrote me the kindest things. I just… I wonder how we hated each other so much when we met in person, but when we started writing to one another…”

“I don’t know,” he replied, then he reached up, and scratched his head. “But that’s a damn good question. If we’d hit it off like we did in our letters _—_ ”

“Tonight would’ve happened much sooner.”

“Probably. Damn shame about that hate sex, though. That would’ve been… magnificent.”

Rey’s eyes looked up to find his, then she licked her lips as she found the courage to ask him the question she’d been thinking since they’d decided to start this. “So that wasn’t hate sex, then?”

“What? No,” Ben replied hurriedly, rubbing comforting circles into her back with his warm hands. “No, that was definitely not hate sex… but it….” _It wasn’t just sex either,_ went unsaid, but she certainly picked up on it as she turned her head, and pressed a kiss to his skin, tasting the vague hint of salt from where his sweat was still drying.

As the silence began to fall over them, Rey smiled. “I know,” she replied. “Talk about it in the morning?”

“I’d love to.”

With that in mind, Rey shifted up so her face hovered over his, letting the fingers of one of her hands card themselves through his hair all over again as she pressed one last kiss to his lips. It was soft, sweet, and over in a second, but there was so much behind it that remained unsaid, spoken only through Rey’s gesture which promised them both more. This would happen again, and it would happen frequently. It was only a matter of time.

Once she finished, she pulled away from him, and resumed their comfortable hold beneath the warmth of the sleeping bag. “Good night, Ben,” she whispered softly, then she felt him press a kiss to the top of her head, flooding her veins with warmth as her cheeks flushed red.

“Night, Rey,” he replied, then she let her eyes flutter shut, and she fell asleep to the gentle rising and falling of Ben’s chest as he breathed, letting it hypnotize her into the best sleep she’d had in ages.

The next morning, Rey awoke to the soft patter of water droplets against the front of the cave floor as water from the previous night’s rain slowly trickled down off of the cave’s edge. The fire in front of them had gone out probably hours ago, and it was now only smoldering remains and scorched remnants of hot dogs that laid before them, reminding her of all the events of the last night.

A part of her had feared it was just a dream; a really good dream that felt stunningly real. Maybe she’d been more drunk than she thought, but as she shifted against the hard pillow her head was resting on, she realized it had most certainly been real. That and well, she was currently completely naked, and she was pressed up against an equally naked body. Ben’s chest was rising and falling slowly beneath her, his breathing still completely even as he slept on, unaware of the world around him.

Rey glanced up at him as he slept, noticing how peaceful he appeared in his unconscious state. In the night, a lock of his hair had fallen over half his face, giving him a Phantom of the Opera-like appearance as the light of the early morning sun trickled into the cave. The thought of Ben wearing that phantom mask made her giggle, and he stirred at the sound. She quickly hushed herself, but the damage seemed to have already been done.

Slowly, Ben’s eyes began to drift open, and he looked around deliriously, taking in the ceiling and walls of the cave before he glanced at Rey, and he raised an eyebrow before relaxing. “So that wasn’t a dream,” he said plainly, though the corners of his mouth were already turning up in a smile.

Rey shook her head. “No, it wasn’t. That was all real,” she promised him, then she rested her palm against his cheek. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” Ben replied, then he full on grinned as his eyes looked just above her head, causing her to frown.

“What?”

He reached a hand up and out of the sleeping bag, and pressed down on the top of her head before smoothing out her hair. “You had a bit of a chicken’s nest growing up there,” he said softly, then as she hid her face from embarrassment, he quickly reached for her chin, and turned her gaze back on him. “No, I… I think it’s cute.”

A blush crept up Rey’s cheeks, somehow she felt more flustered by the thought of him being affectionate with her than by the fact that they’d had sex at least three times the night before. “I’m glad my ‘Chicken’s nest,’ amuses you.”

Ben laughed then, his chest shaking her head as she continued to rest on it, but after a few seconds, he began to calm down. There was something warm in his eyes as he looked at her, something Rey had never seen before in anyone else. It both terrified and excited her, though she wasn’t sure which of those emotions she more closely identified with.

His hand found its way into her hair, then, and he sighed as his dark eyes continued staring into hers. “What are you thinking about?” she asked, her fingers rubbing circles into his chest.

Instead of outright saying something, Ben placed a hand over hers, then he leaned forward, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “When we get out of this cave… do you think you might want to… get dinner or something?”

Heart fluttering in her chest, Rey hummed mockingly like she was actually thinking about it before she gave him an answer. “Yeah, I’d like that,” she said after she was fairly certain he’d had a sizable heart attack at far too young an age. “Maybe tonight? The storm’s cleared up, so… that should leave us free to do whatever we like.”

“It’s a date, then?”

She nodded. “It’s a date,” she replied, then Ben was smiling at her, and before she knew it she was on her back, he was on top of her, and his lips were crashing down onto hers. An involuntary moan left her as she returned the kiss, letting his tongue sweep into her mouth as her fingers carded through his hair, holding him close against her.

Rey quickly lost herself in the kiss, suddenly finding that she was really looking forward to her next letter to Kylo. She’d never written anything particularly scandalous in a letter before, but now she certainly had a lot to say about certain things they’d done that night. Already she could picture him reading her next letter; maybe he was at his desk or maybe he was in his home, his face beet red either way from the contents of her writing.

The thought of Ben getting flustered from a letter made her feel wet between her legs again, and as she lost herself to her own thoughts, she didn’t hear the distant voices approaching the cave. She also didn’t hear the sound of footsteps getting closer, nor the dropping of heavy equipment at the entrance of the cave. It wasn’t until Poe’s voice shouted, “ _what the fuck?”_ that she realized they’d been caught.

Ben pulled away from her immediately, rolling off of her, but not letting her out of his arms. Once he was gone, Rey blinked over the glare of the sun, and winced when she saw Finn and Poe’s shocked faces. Both men’s jaws were wide as they took in the sight of their naked coworkers. Rey quickly made sure her chest was covered—it was—as she swallowed nervously. “Um, good morning.”

“Good morning,” Poe blurted, looking between the two of them in surprise. “Um… wow, okay. Uh… this is… unexpected… I, wow.”

“What the _fuck?”_ Finn breathed. “Oh, I can’t unsee that. I really can’t unsee that.”

Another awkward few seconds followed that, and just as Rey began to hide beneath the sleeping bag, Poe started clapping, which was quickly followed by raucous laughter that echoed off the cave walls. She slowly peered over the edge of the bag to find Poe on his knees, clutching his chest as he tried to keep himself upright with his other hand. “Oh, Jesus Christ, I thought you two might at most agree to keep to yourselves, I never thought you’d get naked.”

“Bite me, Dameron,” Ben replied, though when Rey looked over at him, he had another smile plastered across his face. In the past twenty four hours, she’d seen him do it more times than he ever had in the time she’d known him, and Rey quickly realized Ben had a nice smile.

Poe pointed at Ben as he stood up. “If you’re serious I wouldn’t say no—“

“I know you wouldn’t, so it’s a good thing I’m not serious,” Ben grumbled. “Now would you two mind turning around so we can put our clothes back on?”

More laughter escaped Poe, but he quickly obliged Ben’s command, then he turned around, and smacked Finn's arm when he remained staring in his shocked state. Eventually, Finn turned around, too, and Ben and Rey set about finding their clothes from where they’d scattered them throughout the cave floor.

A couple minutes later, Rey was fully dressed, and she looked over at Ben to check his status, waiting until he gave her an okay symbol with his hand before she cleared her throat. “We’re decent,” she told Finn and Poe. “You can turn around now.”

The two men turned around, and Finn looked hesitantly at them as if he were uncertain they’d actually clothed themselves before his shoulders relaxed, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Poe on the other hand still seemed to be snickering under his breath. She shook her head. “I’m glad you’re amused.”

“Oh, this is hilarious, and you have to tell me—“

“I’m not telling you _shit_ , Poe,” she replied, then she walked over to the table they’d set all their things on the day before, and grabbed her log book. “Now, I believe we have work to do. So since you’re both back… can we get to it?”

Poe managed to leave her alone after that, for about three hours. His first questions started pouring in immediately after that, and she always refused to answer them, since Ben was only a few meters away at all times. At one point when he went to the bathroom, though, she gave her coworker a nod when he guessed the size of his cock. He’d absolutely howled after that, and Ben had returned to the cave looking bewildered and confused, which caused both of them to laugh their asses off.

They’d stalled actual work on the project for another hour after that. By the time that hour ended, Finn decreed they would be taking a lunch break, and they lost another two hours. Still they managed to get a lot of work done by the time dinner rolled around, but as Finn and Poe gathered hot dogs by the rebuilt fire, Ben tapped her on the shoulder. She beamed at him. “What’s up?”

“Nothing, I was just wondering if you wanted to go for a…” He looked up, making sure Finn and Poe were on the opposite side of the cave from them before he grinned. “I’m going to tell them it’s a food run, but I was wondering if you’d get dinner with me in the city tonight.”

Rey quickly nodded. “That sounds perfect, but, Ben we’re both absolutely disgusting from… the last twenty four hours.”

“Rey, we could go to fucking Waffle House for all I care, I just… I want to—“

She giggled softly. “I know,” she replied, then she set down her logbook on the floor beside her. “So… Waffle House in about an hour? We’ll want to head out before sunset.”

“It’s a date,” Ben said, then he made sure Finn and Poe weren’t looking before he leaned forward, and pressed a brief little kiss to her lips.

Rey felt a bit dazed after that as the remaining hour passed. She kept looking over at Ben over the furniture and bodies and smiling almost involuntarily as the time passed, and the sun crossed the sky even further. By the time the sky turned the shades of pink and orange that signified a sunset, she was itching to get out of there.

Mercifully, Ben came to the rescue precisely on the hour mark. “You ready to go?” He asked. “I’ve been having thoughts about waffles for the last sixty minutes.”

She laughed at him, but assured him she was ready. “I’ve been good to _leave_ for the last sixty minutes.”

He responded by holding out his hand to her, and she took it before they made heir way out of the cave. Ben grabbed the keys to the van they’d taken to the parking lot on their way out, snatching them from off the table before shouting to Finn and Poe, “We’ll be back in a bit!”

“Great!” Poe shouted back. “Use a condom!”

The last thing she heard before they were out of earshot was the sound of a smack, followed by a cry of, “ _Ow!”_ that undoubtedly belonged to their mischievous coworker. Another giggle escaped Rey at the mental image that sound brought about, then she looked over at Ben to find he was barely fighting back laughter as they walked down the trail together. She still couldn’t believe that just twenty four hours earlier, they’d been bickering when they’d walked up this same path, and now here they were holding hands.

She didn’t mind the change, though. A suspicion sank into her that she never would.

“So do we actually plan on coming back tonight or are we going to retaliate for what they did to us?” Rey asked, then she saw Ben’s jaw drop slightly. “What?”

A sly grin slowly developed on his face. “You’re evil, and I love it. I wasn’t even considering not coming back tonight, but now…”

“Now?”

“I think we may need to look up hotel rooms. Maybe an actual bed will be nicer than a cave floor.”

“You’re probably right, but what will we tell them?”

Ben shrugged, then he gestured to the setting sun in the west. “We didn’t want to walk through the woods after dark. There’s mountain lions out here, Rey,” he said, his voice mockingly innocent. “It could be dangerous.”

She nodded her agreement, then her tone mimicked his. “Wouldn’t want to get eaten.”

“Not like that at least,” Ben replied, then he gave her a wink, and she howled with laughter as they continued their descent down the mountain.

A day ago she would’ve dreaded any sort of a future with Ben, but now as they made an impromptu trip into a city they didn’t know well at all, she couldn’t wait to see where that thing they’d started the night before went. She wasn’t sure where it would lead, but she knew it was something great.

Already she could picture the first letter she’d send to him after the dig wrapped up. She couldn’t be sure of the exact wording, but she was smiling at him as the vaguest picture of it came to her mind.

_Dear Kylo,_

_So much for anonymity, huh? We certainly blew that out of the water. Oh well, I personally like the name Ben better anyway. It suits you. And what is R but a shitty initial? In hindsight, I should’ve come up with a cool name, too. Maybe I could’ve been… I don’t know, what’s the female equivalent of kylo? Kyla? Kira? I’m terrible at coming up with names. This is why I’m not a writer.  But regardless, I’ll figure out a cool name even if we stop using these pseudonyms._

_I also need to eventually pick your brain about how you came up with Kylo anyway. It’s such an odd one, and hopefully one day you’ll tell me about it because I’d love to hear it, and you already know my pseudonym origin story so it’s only fair._

_Anyway, I can’t wait until our next dig. Maybe we’ll go back to Naples one day and pay a tribute to John’s memory in that brothel. We’ll have to be sneaky about it, though. It’s a lot less isolated than a cave. But until then, I’ll be thinking of every way I can drive you absolutely insane._

_Before I end this letter, though I think we should definitely pick somewhere that’s not a Waffle House for our second date. As romantic as it was, I don’t think either of us was hungover enough to enjoy it. Maybe we should also have sex in a Waffle House._

_I’ll be seeing you around, though._

_~~Sincerely~~ —love, _

_R_

  



End file.
